1P2-K03 Performance Evaluation of Environment-Driven Torquer by Free-Fall Experiments(Space Robotics)

Abstract

JAXA is planning to launch Hayabusa 2 in December 2014. Hayabusa 2 will be equipped with an asteroid exploration rover which is developed by the consortium of universities. A goal of the rover is establishment of the technology for locomotion on asteroid surface. In our previous work, we proposed a new moving mechanism called "Environment-Driven Torquer, EDT." The EDT is driven by environment temperature with bimetal. In other words, the EDT can move the rover without both battery and CPU. We have developed an engineering model with magnet latch. In this paper, performance evaluation of the EDT is executed by free-fall experiments in ZARM.